Veteran homelessness all but ended in Orlando, official says

Homeless people who have died on the streets of Central Florida are honored and remembered each year before Christmas during a service organized by faith and nonprofit leaders, such as this one December, 2015 at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.

Homeless people who have died on the streets of Central Florida are honored and remembered each year before Christmas during a service organized by faith and nonprofit leaders, such as this one December, 2015 at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.

On an annual day of mourning for homeless people who have died in the preceding year, there was also reason to celebrate Tuesday: Virtually all of the region's once-chronically homeless veterans are now in housing, a top official said.

Andrae Bailey, CEO of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, said he is filing notice with the federal government this week that nearly 1,000 veterans have been housed in the past three years — including several hundred this year alone.

"Veteran homelessness has been a national disgrace," Bailey said. "But we now have this moment where we should be incredibly proud of what our community has accomplished."

In the coming weeks, the federal government is expected to review the local data and issue a determination that the region has reached "functional zero" on housing veterans considered chronically homeless — defined as more than a year or repeatedly over several years, typically because of a disability.

Bailey's remarks followed a service at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando for Homeless Persons' Memorial Day — a national event held each year on the first day of winter to recognize those who spend their final days living in camps, cars, abandoned buildings and on the streets. This year, 52 Central Floridians were remembered — including those run over by cars, murdered, suffering from diabetes and kidney failure or wrestling with severe mental illness.

More than 100 people turned out to read their names, light a candle in their honor and share glimpses of their lives.

Mark Wessel, 65, a U.S. Army veteran who spent the past 25 years homeless, knows he might easily have been among those casualties had he not found housing in July through the VA.

"I was hospitalized twice in the recent past, so I think I got into an apartment just in time," Wessel said. "I'm very, very grateful. For years, I just didn't fit in — and I could never hold a job long enough to break the cycle."

At the height of the problem in 2011, Florida had the second-largest population of homeless veterans in the nation, behind California. And though some communities had been working on the issue for more than 20 years, in Orlando the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs didn't start until 2007 — and then had to play catch-up.

As a consequence, the population of homeless veterans in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties nearly doubled during the recession — to 1,250. Most lived completely outside the system that might have helped them, avoiding shelters and the VA.

"You still have some of the Vietnam guys in the woods who will never come in," said Jacqueline Dowd, an attorney who helps the homeless obtain vital identification through the nonprofit IDignity. "But the progress has been amazing — thanks to our community's fairly recently developed will to do something about this problem."

The tide began to turn four years ago with increased federal funding for veteran housing, but the pace accelerated most rapidly in the past year, said Dr. Paul Deci, the Orlando VA's chief of mental health. That's when the regional homeless commission and the nonprofit Homeless Services Network took the lead in enlisting the community's help.

In July, the agencies led a "Veterans Surge" across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties — an effort to count, interview and house all remaining chronically homeless veterans to meet the federal government's national target of Dec. 31 of this year. Volunteers identified more than 400 veterans still homeless.

"Huge progress has been made," Deci said. Once housed, he noted, veterans who have lived on the streets for years with chronic physical and mental-health issues tend to improve by a number of measures.

"It is really transformative," he said. "Some of them are getting health care they may never have received before because they couldn't get to an appointment. They're taking their prescribed medication regularly for the first time. It's very difficult for homeless people to do that just by the fact that they don't have a home."

Local officials acknowledge that the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness could determine that the region has not yet reached the target of functional zero — a term meaning all but a dozen or so chronically homeless veterans who recently moved to the area or those who refuse help are in housing. But they said it seems unlikely.

"I think what we've done speaks volumes about compassion in our community," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. "We plan to continue that momentum to help all chronically homeless individuals into housing" whether they're veterans or not.

Bailey also said the veterans who face short-term homelessness, often for financial reasons, also need future attention, as do their families.

"There's still a lot of work to do," he said.

The memorial service proved as much.

"It has been seven years on the street for me," said Fernando Cantres Ramos, 59, who attended to honor several friends who died in the past year. "When I hear these names, it's like a part of me dying too."